We have all heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. In some cases that could very well be true. Graphics and images can bring your site to life, grabbing your visitors' attention and achieving the desired conversion results. Images can add drama, excitement, truth and more to your site to make time spent on your site an experience to remember.
Studies show that one well-placed image can raise your conversion rate by as much as 25%! But despite all the amazing results images can achieve, if used incorrectly, they can also have the reverse effect.
Look over the ten tips below to see what you can do and what you shouldn't do to change the overall effect of the graphics and images on your site.
1. Use Images to Bring out Emotion - People are ruled by their emotions. Using pictures to help bring out these emotions can be very successful. Place images on your site that will bring out the positive of what you have to offer. If you sell home decor, don't just show pictures of the products. Show someone happily and proudly showing off her home with your decor to her friends. Getting your prospects to feel good is a major part of making the sale!
2. Placement is Key - People will scan your webpage in a very specific way. Our eyes tend to follow a clear pattern. Placing images in key spots in this pattern will often get more results. To start with, you will want a professional quality banner placed at the top of your page. This will draw your visitors' into your site for further scrutiny. Amidst your body copy, place images where they will enhance the information you are offering. Do not place your images randomly all over your site. This could easily distract and confuse your readers.
3. Use Quality, Professional Images - Be sure your images are not blurry or hard to see. Don't use flashy, loud or obnoxious images. You want the images to be simple and color compatible to your site. You want the images to bring out your content, not distract from it.
4. Do Not Use Clipart - Although there is a lot of free clipart available, it is not always a good choice. Clipart is very childish looking and cartoonish. Of course, there are sites that clipart would work well for, so by all means then use it. But if you need something to send a more powerful message, clipart is not the answer.
5. Slow Loading Pages - One of the most annoying things we can experience is a webpage that takes too long to load. People will more than likely not wait any longer than 5 - 10 seconds for a webpage to load. With this in mind, you want to make sure you do not use too many images or slow-loading images that will cause your readers to leave. This is one case where less is more!
6. Alternative Text or Tags - Alternative text or tags are also known as alt tags or alt text. This is done by adding text into the HTML code of the image. You want to do this because the search engine spiders cannot read images so you need to add keywords and descriptive text to achieve SEO from the image. For example: If you sell jewelry and post an image of a diamond ring on your site, the search engine spiders will not recognize the image as a diamond ring. So, you just need to add a bit of alt text like so alt="diamond ring" to your HTML code for the image. This will enable the spiders to read the image thus increasing your SEO.
7. Branding - Branding is when your company is immediately recognized by just an image or phrase. This is important because it gets people to connect with you and your company and it builds your reputation. For example: When you see a little white apple with a bite taken out of it, what company comes to mind? Simple graphics and images can do a lot for your business. Many companies will also use images to create a mascot to brand their business. Mascots can bring personality and life to your business while making it more memorable. We all know what company comes to mind when we see a little green gecko or a dancing peanut. This can happen for your business and reputation as well.
8. Website Related - One thing you want to make sure you do not do is throw up a bunch of pictures because they are pretty and look good. You don't want to use images as decorations. The images you use must be related to your site and the content you provide. Don't use images as you would knick knacks in your house - they will just clutter up your site.
9. Rotating Images - Images that showcase products by rotating 360 degrees has been shown to increase conversion rates substantially.
10. Be Creative - In this day and age the possibilities are endless so dig down deep into your creativity and come up with something so amazing it will take your business to new heights!
Images are one of those things that can do wonders for your business but they can also hurt your business as well. So, learn everything you can about how to use graphics and images to build your business. Test different images to see which ones increase your conversions and which ones do not. The extra work will definitely be worth it!
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